With only one eye, it is
impossible to see with perspective.
Is this why we poke them out?
To insure the rule of our lesser angels?
To insure the rule of our lesser angels?
Aquinas observed that the invariable hallmark of sin is loss of perspective/proportion.
Dear John,
Not many years ago, the Post Office was doing quite well.
However, until reading your email, I did not realize the cause of the PO's sudden decline: "The USPS would have a surplus right now if it wasn't for the fact that Republicans in Congress in 2006 required the service to prefund 75 years of pensions in just 10 years,” a requirement no other private or public organization has to deal with. Other than a slight dip because of the recession, the USPS was at record highs in terms of volume, despite claims that the Internet and email were hurting traditional mail."
I have a right-wing friend who delights in circulating email-bilge.
For years, I have supplied my friend with well-researched "corrections." (He even thanks me for "setting the record straight.")
But recently George wrote back: "I like being partially right."
Being "partially right" is like being "partially pregnant": both situations are patently absurd.
In the absence of context, every text (which typically means a "text-fragment") is a pretext.
The United States will have no meaningful recovery -- and no revitalization of governmental decadence -- until we move beyond the radical partiality of "conservatives" who insist on NO tax hikes, ALL budget cuts and the re-definition of corporations as persons.
Nor does it help that "conservatives" have never seen a war they didn't like.
Nor does it help that "conservatives" have never seen a war they didn't like.
To pretend that life is mono-polar is to deny polarity at the heart of things.
Keeping in mind that half of every population has double digit IQ, it is predictable that the Know Nothing noise machine - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing - devotes itself to proclaiming "partial truth... and nothing but partial truth."
So help them God. (And so help their partial pregnancies.)
The word "partisan" derives from the word "part" and refers to any "partial aggregate of people" who make up "part" of any political spectrum.
No wonder biblical literalists (and anyone else who delights in being "partially right") are eager to justify destruction. The Bible is chock full of slaughter. Even David, when purchasing one of his seven wives at a "bride price" of "a hundred Philistine foreskins" brought back two hundred, each of them representing a husband-father who would never again be present at the family hearth. Go David. Mutilate those genitalia.)
A remarkable number of conservatives have become neo-necrophiliacs whose sense of "well-being" depends on killing people (preferably dark-skinned people) by execution, lack of health insurance and foreign wars mostly conducted by profiteering servo-mechanisms of The Military Industrial Complex. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682
Watch the following video clips and you will witness a broad swathe of Americans who delight in the death of others.
Republicans Cheer the Death of Uninsured Americans - Ron Paul: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irx_QXsJiao
What other impetus but "love of death" motivates so many Republicans to applaud carnage - and to applaud it with "born again" zeal?
In any event, if death is "called for," it is reprehensible that
we delight in it.
From my vantage, it is inhuman.
Here are photographs of smiling U.S. troops
posing with severed body parts. Ah, boys will be boys! http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-afghan-photos-20120418,0,5032601.story
***
In this context, note that every American bible banger struts through life, Good Book in hand, chanting the Old Testament's most vindictive verses.
If honesty prevailed, we would recognize these self-professed Christians as Old Testament Jews whose undying passion for The Law of Talion identifies their true religious affiliation. (The word "retaliate" derives from the word "talion." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_for_an_eye)
To contrast Yeshua's essential teaching with "The Law of Talion," please review the following passages from Matthew.
Eye for Eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[b]and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Alan here... The more accurate translation of the word "perfect" is "complete.")
***
If there is anything like a traditional Hell, I envision a disproportionate number of "Judgement Day Surprises," most of them occurring on "the right side of the aisle." (If the four gospels are to be believed whores, wine bibblers and traitorous tax collectors have an inside track to paradise, whereas there is no greater woe than what awaits punctilious church-goers. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23&version=NIV)
“Good Christians” are certain that God delights in punishing the wicked.
Methinks "Good Christians" "certain" of far too much, never understanding that "faith" is "faith" precisely because it is not knowledge.
It is not God who punishes "the wicked."
Rather, "the wicked" confect their own punishment, stewing themselves in vast vats of vindictiveness.
In the end, they no longer see The Gift through their jaundiced eyes. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/shes-alive.html
While they piss and moan about being "ripped off" by "welfare queens," the eternal super-abundance of grace is hidden from them albeit in plain site.
Rather, "the wicked" confect their own punishment, stewing themselves in vast vats of vindictiveness.
In the end, they no longer see The Gift through their jaundiced eyes. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/shes-alive.html
While they piss and moan about being "ripped off" by "welfare queens," the eternal super-abundance of grace is hidden from them albeit in plain site.
With startling frequency, “Good Christians” deify themselves, employing the same stupid zeal as chest-thumping apes.
Tragically, it is more common than not that "The Saved!" project personal wrath onto God, transforming Deity into a "gofer," a menial, a servant - a sort of "caddy" for "The Righteous" whose primary purpose is to validate their own blood-lust.
Tragically, it is more common than not that "The Saved!" project personal wrath onto God, transforming Deity into a "gofer," a menial, a servant - a sort of "caddy" for "The Righteous" whose primary purpose is to validate their own blood-lust.
Good luck with that.
And good luck with your eternal salvation.
And good luck with your eternal salvation.
You cannot wish people dead... and love your enemies.
Pax on both houses,
Alan
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18
On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 10:51 AM, john tarantino wrote:
April 26, 2012 06:00 AM
Ed Schultz Takes On Republican Assault on Postal Service
By Kenneth Quinnell
In the face of continued pressure to weaken the United States Postal Service and attack the unionized working families who work for the USPS, Ed Schultz offers up the most comprehensive defense of the agency to date. In addition to pointing out the facts of the case that have been widely reported in the blogosphere, Schultz takes on a new angle — that cutting back on postal service equates to voter suppression in states that have vote by mail, particularly Oregon, which votes exclusively by mail.
As previously pointed out, the USPS would have a surplus right now if it wasn't for the fact that Republicans in Congress in 2006 required the service to prefund 75 years of pensions in just 10 years — a requirement no other private or public organization has to deal with. Other than a slight dip because of the recession, the USPS was at record highs in terms of volume, despite claims that the Internet and email were hurting traditional mail.
Square State also points to the first of several ads from the American Postal Workers Union that highlights a Colorado Springs postal worker. Two other APWU ads showcase the problems created by the assault on the USPS.
At Daily Kos, Laura Clawson notes that the Senate passed a bill that would give the Postal Service some time to avoid extreme measures:
The Senate passed S. 1789, the bill generally reported to be aimed at "saving" or "fixing" the postal service, by a vote of 62-37 Wednesday. Less widely reported were the origins of the postal service's problems in a crisis manufactured by Congress and exacerbated less by the shift online than by the recession. The Senate bill buys the postal service some time before the worst proposed post office and processing center closures, cuts to delivery and lengthened delivery times, and jobs cuts can begin to kick in. But while it prevents postal executives from kicking off an immediate death spiral, it doesn't create the conditions for the postal service's success by reversing the conditions that manufactured the crisis to begin with.
The Senate's bill would bar the postal service from ending Saturday mail delivery for two years, keeps overnight first-class mail delivery for some mail sent short distances while allowing longer delivery times over greater distances, prevents pre-Election Day closures in states that vote by mail, and prevents the closure of post offices if there are no other post offices within 10 miles, among other things.
No comments:
Post a Comment